The Beat Up
  • Home
  • About
Sign in Subscribe

Brendan Martin

Brendan Martin
Multicolored plastic barrel of monkeys linked together against a sunny, partially cloudy sky.

I got to

INT. WHALE - AFTERNOON I wrote a sketch for a Late Night Comedy Writing Class. The assignment was to write a cold open for a latenight show and I wrote it for Whalefall, a movie about, in part, the process of Whale Fall. The sketch was about a host doing their

By Brendan Martin 17 Oct 2026
Be Open

Be Open

The first person I studied any improv with was Dell Close and a lot of people had a guru relationship to him, or some people, not a lot, but some people did, he used to say you're not improvising you're just letting the universe channel through

By Brendan Martin 09 Oct 2026
I'm relieved it didn't happen a day sooner

I'm relieved it didn't happen a day sooner

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Writers Guild Foundation (@wgfoundation) This was a passion project that took 18 years to get made. I'm relieved it didn't happen a day sooner. Good luck and stick with it. —Katie Dippold I like this quote

By Brendan Martin 02 Oct 2026
Camp Pontiac Sign with Pontiac spelled out in big red wooden letters.

And Camp Recap

I am still recovering from And Camp. I am sick and I am sleep-deprived due to some life choices (taking too many improv and comedy writing classes—more on that some other time). Bear with me, please. When you sign up to go to an adult improv sleepover camp,

By Brendan Martin 24 Sep 2026
The And Camp

The And Camp

I'm attending The And Camp today through Sunday. I'm excited to spend some time working on my craft, but also meet people in real life I've only ever met online! I'll try and have a review/debrief up next week.

By Brendan Martin 17 Sep 2026
Fear

Fear

[...]Amy was our 1st director, and she's a pirate. Two things I learned from her. Number one, don't let fear crash on your couch because they're never going to leave. And number two, step on the blood—no bathe in the blood of the

By Brendan Martin 10 Sep 2026
I Get to Fail Tonight

I Get to Fail Tonight

I have a show tonight which means my brain is currently trying to plan for an improv show. It won't be successful. I get to thinking about the pattern game open to maybe the first beat I'll be a part of and then realize that I

By Brendan Martin 03 Sep 2026
Premise

Premise

Some stray thoughts on premise. In the UCB manual, premise is defined as: [T]he term used to describe a fully-formed comedic idea found in an opening that strongly suggests a Game. — Besser, Roberts, and Walsh, The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual, p. 94 I don't

By Brendan Martin 27 Aug 2026
If, Then - Part 1

If, Then - Part 1

I am having ongoing technical woes this month, all unrelated to each other. Currently I've been without home internet for 14 hours, which makes pulling together a post challenging. I've been rewatching this set from The Smokes. I love how the game develops during the second

By Brendan Martin 20 Aug 2026
A photo in black and white. A young African-American boy's weight and height are recorded by a twenty-something African-American nurse.  The boy is shoeless aThe era appears to be the 1940s.

Heightening - Part 1

Using the excuse of my laptop being blown up and off at a repair site to continue my series on the building blocks of improv. I have been fortunate to be able to take some classes online and in person with Will Hines. During my first class, I asked a

By Brendan Martin 13 Aug 2026
What Improv Is Teaching Me About Writing

What Improv Is Teaching Me About Writing

A Brief History of Writing I've been open about who I am on the internet, so I might as well say that this is me. This is the closest I've come to doing what I wanted to do for a living. In 2006, somehow TWENTY YEARS

By Brendan Martin 06 Aug 2026
Scene and Games

Scene and Games

I had a thought that this scene in HBO's Chernobyl gets at something primal with improv. That, for how challenging it is, we're really just balancing two things as performers: Game and Scene. Something that's really clicked for me recently is Jim Wood—I&

By Brendan Martin 31 Jul 2026
See all

The Beat Up

When I was in rehab, I started talking and telling my story, and people laughed and told me I should keeping do that.  This is my journey through improv.

The Beat Up
  • Sign up
Powered by Ghost